The average cost of a haircut can be anywhere from $15 to over $100 depending on where you go.

Always on the lookout for ways to save money, I took it upon myself to trim my own hair. I figured how hard could it be, if I can cut paper, and I can my steak cutting my own hair couldn’t possibly be harder than carving a turkey.

Being the avid researcher that I am, I began reading hairstylist textbooks that are used in beauty schools. Sounded simple enough: Section hair, comb and cut.

All I needed was good pair of scissors. Considering I’m not pondering this as a career choice I figured I don’t need anything fancy like the professionals use, their scissors can cost upwards of $200 to over $300, I figured the shears at Wal-Mart would be just fine.

It began easily enough. I started with the left side and then moved to the right side. Perfect and even, piece of cake. Disaster began when I attempted to trim the back. The front was easy because you see what your doing in the mirror; unless you have eyes in the back of your head this should not be attempted at home. I figured if I split the hair in the back as if I was putting it in pigtails I’d be able to match the evenness to the sides.

Sounds great in theory, in reality not so great.

At the end of my trim, my shoulder length hair was now up to the nape of my neck. The next day, I ran to the nearest hair salon for them to fix my haircut. So in addition to the time I spent cutting my hair which was over 2 hours, I paid an additional $30 to have it fixed.

What I learned

Hairstylists don’t even cut their own hair. They have someone else do it too! The only hair that you can trim with reasonable success is your bangs; however at this point I wouldn’t try that myself.

Hairstylists are professionals, they know what they’re doing and they can see the back of your head which is something I can’t do. Just because your craft scissors are sharp does not mean they are meant to cut your hair. Using the wrong scissors can lead to damaged hair and split ends. Finally, the last thing I learned was that just reading a book does not qualify me as capable of cutting hair.

If you have a hairdresser, treasure them, they are a gift!